This fifth LP and first in five years by the Australian multi-instrumentalist Kevin Parker sees him go down a more a more dance-electronica route, mixing psych, techno, reggaeton, and the heavy drum kicks of the western Australia’s “bush doof” rave scene, but as ever with the distinctive yearning of his falsetto voice. It’s a direction he’s been going in after the breakthrough originality of primarily psych-guitar in the first two albums, then exploring more sugary elements of 2015’s Currents, and then co-producing and co-wroting most of Dua Lipa’s last album, Radical Optimism. And it’s a formula that has brought him greater commercial success in streaming. The themes here are of a sense of self-division, of two worlds colliding - mixing fame and fun with home life and parenthood. This is expressed musically and lyrically. On opener My Old Ways, he includes the ghost of the piano demos at the start before the beats kick in and “I know I, I said never again / Temptation, feels like it never ends.” The catchy beats of No Reply is an apology for non-contact and poor communication: “You're a cinephile, I watch Family Guy / On a Friday night, off a rogue website / When I should be out with some friends of mine / Runnin' rеckless wild in the streets at night.” Dracula’s disco pop also has him feeling sorry for staying out late when it’s not a comfortable lifestyle: “I'm on the verge of caving in, I run back through thе dark/ Now I'm Mr. Charisma, fuckin' Pablo Escobar (Escobar) / My friends are saying, "Shut up, Kevin, just gеt in the car" (Kevin) / I just wanna be right where you are (Oh, my love).” Loser also sees a stylish pop sheen of self-recrimination here, and also on Obsolete, there are off-mic sighs and exclamations. Not My World has a mournful vocal across a distorted club beat and a washed out feeling of “waking in time to catch the last hours of sunlight / People walking home go by”. On Piece of Heaven he seems haunted by his absence from his children’s bedroom: “I don’t know if I’ll be here / I guess that depends.” How does it all end? With a bittersweet feeling on perhaps the album’s highlight - End of Summer - a mix of euphoria and regret, dancefloor syncopated shuffle beats and a wistful melody. Filled with regret and distraction, Parker captures his inner divisions with an unusual fusion of joy and sorrow in what turns out to be a very successful formula and what turns out to be an ironic title. Out on Columbia Records.
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